How frightening can it be? Missing stock on a daily basis or maybe it's just monthly. This can be more than an annoying experience, it can actually impact on your bottom line over time. A lot of retail store owners endure this as they do not have the right process or system in place to guard against lost or stolen inventory. Investing in the best inventory management system in Nigeria is the surest way to reduce it.

How to reduce stock theft in your retail business

Lost or stolen inventory is one of the main headaches of retail store owners. Products get sold to friends and families at zero price or they might have even been taken by employees for personal use or consumption. Hence the need to invest in a decent inventory management software. Having an inventory management system for your retail business is important to the growth and profitability of your business. As a retail business, you need to invest in the best inventory system and also perform regular stock-take. Stock-take is a count of all your inventory, both in store and in your warehouses/storerooms. You can read more on how to have an effective stock-take strategy here.

Here are the major reasons why you need a good inventory system;

Loss prevention: If you don’t have an existing inventory system in your store you wouldn’t be able to detect missing items and this can encourage employee theft and being ripped off by customers. Retail businesses often lose a significant amount of their stock annually. This loss could be attributed to spoilage or pilferage. Spoilage is when perishables expire before being sold while pilferage is when any type of stock go missing through theft. Theft is very common but the strategy for every business is to reduce it to the absolute minimum. This type of loss is probably the most emotionally charged type of loss as it relates to your employees.

Helps in monitoring your products or goods: Because having a ton of products in your store or company can make it difficult for you to track them, it is important for you to have an inventory system because this would make the job easier for you to be aware of the goods available and those that have low buyers or sellers. Your employees essentially know you have a record of your products and this will reduce the occurrence of thefts.

Helps to know the status of your stock: It makes no sense not to know how you are doing. You need to be smart and get the basics right. An inventory system helps you see the performance of your stock or product. This helps you to better manage your business by putting in place robust financial plans that will ensure future growth. As a retail business owner, you want to know your best selling products and ensure you never run out of stock. The importance of keeping records of your stock should not be under-emphasized. Having a good inventory system at the end of the day is necessary because it helps to identify goods that are running out of stock, it also saves time and stress in ordering and restocking them when you run out. A stock-take and having a robust inventory management system are essential to reducing theft in any retail business.

P.S: PrognoStore is a point-of-sale software for small business which helps you sell your goods/services, track your inventory and gain insights to run your business. This is why you need us for your small or retail business, our software helps control theft in your stores or shops. PrognoStore is arguably the best inventory management system in Nigeria. It is the one single system you need to run your retail store. We are constantly listening to our customers to find out about their pain points and then add updates to PrognoStore to ensure we are able to cater for their needs and also to ease their retail pain.

Simply go towww.prognostore.com/signup and enter PB60FREE for promo code to get 60 days free and get started! I would love to about the theft reduction strategies you employed in the comments section below.